


Doppelganger

by Kolecho



Category: Ghostwriter (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2019-11-12 16:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18014372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kolecho/pseuds/Kolecho
Summary: Someone is stealing from a lot of stores in Brooklyn, and evidence shows that its Rob. The Ghostwriter team knows that its not him, including since the robberies happened when Rob was somewhere else. Who is this mysterious doppelganger, and can Rob and the rest of the team catch him?





	1. Accusation

"Look, I _know_ I saw you at the school basketball game last night," Alex insisted angrily.

"And I'm telling _you_ again that I wasn't there," Rob argued back.

It was about ten minutes before the first bell at Hurston Middle school was supposed to ring. Alex had found Rob in one of the school's hallways before he had even been to his locker.

Rob heard another voice, and turned to see his friend Jamal looking at him and Alex. "Whoa, what's going on here?" the dark-skinned boy asked, looking surprised.

Alex scoffed, and pointed to Rob. "Mr. I-don't-like-sports said that he wasn't going to go to the basketball game between Hurston and Dayton, but I saw him in the bleachers, about ten feet away or something, and he _still_ says that he wasn't there." He crossed his arms. "And I also saw him _again_ after the game in the hallway."

"For tenth time, that _wasn't_ _me_ ," Rob said, frowning. Seriously, why would Alex not believe him already? The Latino boy must have mistaken someone else for him, possibly even someone from Dayton Middle School. "You probably just weren't looking closely enough."

Jamal's face remained calm. "Okay, instead of arguing, let's try to figure this out," he suggested. He turned to Rob. "So, where were you last night?"

Rob resisted rolling his eyes. "At my house," he responded, a bit irritated.

"Doing what?" Alex asked.

Rob frowned again at both the disbelief and accusation in his friend's voice. "Writing," he answered.

He did not want to say _what_ he was writing. Actually, he had not shown any of his new friends anything that he had written. Sometimes his friends had asked, but he had always declined. The only time that he had really shown something to someone was a couple of stories to his older brother, Jason- but he did not want to show him everything he wrote. Plus, Jason was attending a school for the deaf all the way in Washington D.C. and would not be home again for about a month.

"Can anyone else back that up?" Alex asked, scowling.

Rob could not believe that Alex was so worked up over something like this. Maybe the competitive sports spirit had his friend going a little crazy. He wondered if Hurston lost the game, and that was part of the reason why that Alex was so angry.

"Both my parents were there," he irritably responded.

Jamal nodded. "Okay, so Rob was at his house," he said. He turned to Alex. "So you saw the guy that you said looked like Rob in the bleachers first, right? Who was he with?"

"I don't know," Alex said. "But they looked like some guys from Dayton. They were wearing blue and red sports jackets."

Rob frowned again. "That just _proves_ that it wasn't me," he said. "Why would I be with people from Dayton? I don't even know anyone there."

Jamal held up one hand. "When did you see him?" he asked Alex.

"Near the middle of the first half," Alex replied. "I heard someone screaming about something, and I looked at it and happened to see him some seats up and to the left. Later, someone ran up to him- no sports jacket this time- and he and the two guys he was with went to the other side of the bleachers, and I didn't see him again until after the game."

"Did anyone else see him?"

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. He was gone by the time I finally got Jorge to look."

"The bleachers were pretty crowded, right?" Jamal asked.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Duh. It was a basketball game," he said. "The bleachers are always full."

Jamal nodded again. "Okay, I think that it was so it was possible, with so many people there, that you probably saw someone else, both on the bleachers and in the hallway." Alex started to protest, but Jamal continued. "For another thing, Rob says he was at his house, and I believe him. He's our friend, and he's also on the team. I don't think that he would lie about it. And maybe there isn't someone that goes to Dayton that kind of looks like Rob, but maybe there is. You never know."

Alex sighed, then slowly nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. He turned to Rob. "Sorry I blew up on you like that."

"It's fine," Rob said, shrugging. "Did Hurston lose the game?"

Alex stared, incredulous. "You really weren't there, were you?" he asked. "We won by twenty points!" His face turned excited. "Man, it was awesome. It was the beginning of the second half, and we were five points ahead. David Rodriguez practically got shoved by this tall guy against the wall. The referee didn't even say anything.

"So anyway, he got up and grabbed the ball _from the point guard_ , and made a basket right there. You should've seen the looks on their faces. And then later, after Dennis and Corey and the rest of the team had gotten a lot more points, including an awesome three-pointer, David got tripped by a different guy and he went skidding across the floor. But then he got up, and what do you know, grabbed the ball again and landed another three-pointer, all in the last seven seconds."

Jamal laughed. "Sounds like Hurston had a really good game," he answered, smiling. "I wish I could have been there instead of going with my family to a restaurant, since my sister Danitra's in town from college for a bit. I sure wouldn't want to be at Dayton right now."

"No kidding," Alex responded. "After the game, the guys on both teams were good and all, but there was a real commotion in the bleachers. There was this group that got into a really big fight before some teachers broke it up."

"Some people can get pretty crazy," Jamal said, grinning.

Rob laughed, trying and failing to not look at Alex.

Alex just rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it," he said, shaking his head.

"Hey, what's going on?" a friendly voice asked from behind them.

Rob turned around to see Lenni, another one of his friends. Like Jamal, she had apparently gone to her locker since she was also carrying her books for class.

Alex spoke up. "Did you see the game last night?" he asked.

Lenni nodded. "I went there with my dad," she answered. "He said that he wanted to see a game for a change."

Rob was glad that Alex was being friendly towards him again, but he could not stay and talk for forever. "I've got to get to my locker," he said.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, me too," he added. "See you later."

Rob waved to his friends and headed down the hall. He smiled, glad that he actually had friends at this school. After moving around to different military bases his whole life, having the Ghostwriter team was something that he had never would have guessed that he would be lucky enough to have.

* * *

"So how many times has the toy store been robbed?" Gaby asked.

She, along with Tina, were with the other members of the Ghostwriter team at Lenni's house above Alex and Gaby's family store. Gaby and Tina were younger than the rest and went to elementary school, but Rob had noted that did not make them less capable of helping the team.

Lenni had a small green binder filled with unlined white paper open on her lap from the middle of the right side of the corner couch. She tapped the end of her uncapped pen as she spoke. "Three, including this afternoon," she answered.

"And I saw some people going out of the store right after they stole stuff," Alex said. "They were going so fast- and they ran to that big white station wagon and drove off. Boy, were they speeding."

"Did you see what was on it?" Tina asked. "Like something that Ghostwriter could find?"

Alex shook his head regretfully. "Nah," he said. "There wasn't anything like bumper stickers on it, and I didn't get to see the license plate."

Jamal spoke up. "Some other places have been robbed, too," he said. "Like the department store near one of the library branches."

"And also a library branch," Lenni chimed in, quickly jotting down the places. She looked up. "And all of those places are very close to each other."

"Is there anything that could be a clue?" Gaby asked. "Was there the same description of the person, or something?"

"We could check the newspapers," Lenni suggested, standing up. "My dad keeps them for a week, and all of the robberies have happened with the past four days."

Jamal nodded. "Clue time, here we come."

The phone then rang, and Lenni quickly set down notebook on the couch and ran to the small end table nearby to pick up the receiver.

"Hello, Frazier residence," she said. She listened for a little bit, then replied, "Yes, he's here," glancing at Rob.

Alex raised his eyebrows, and Rob shrugged. He was not sure what the call was about. It was Lenni's house, after all, though he had left a note on the counter at his own house. Maybe it was one of the rare days that his mom was home early- unless something else had happened.

"Yes, he's here, too," Lenni said after a long pause. There was another pause. "Okay, I'll tell them," Lenni said, and hung up the phone.

She then turned toward the team. "Rob, Mrs. Jenkins says that your mom wants you home, and Jamal, your mom wants you home, too," she relayed. "She said something about Jamal helping with supper with Danitra since she was going to have to run some errands."

"What about Rob?" Gaby asked. "Why does he have to leave?"

Lenni shook her head, looking concerned. "She didn't say why, but just that it was urgent. She had said that Rob's mom sounded kind of worried."

Gaby made a face. "Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good."

Rob silently agreed. He had never been contacted to go to his house before, even when moving around various air force bases all across the country.

"Could we still work on things here with you two gone?" Tina asked from beside Gaby.

"Sounds fine to me," Jamal said, shrugging. "Just don't catch any robbers without us, right?"

Lenni smiled and nodded. "We'll be sure to tell you once we figure out something," she assured him.

"All right," Jamal answered, grinning.

He stood from the couch and headed toward the door. Rob followed suit, grabbing his skateboard that was leaning against the nearby color tiled counter as they passed it. The team voiced their good-byes to them before they headed out the door and down the steep steps to the sidewalk.

Rob hopped on his skateboard and sped off. "Hey, wait up, Rob," Jamal called out. Rob slowed a bit, and turned to see Jamal running toward him.

"I was told to hurry up," Rob said matter-of-factly once Jamal caught up to him.

Jamal shrugged. "Well, I just wanted to find out if things are going all right at your house. You know that mine is just a block away. I can always hurry back to it real quick."

Rob also shrugged some. "If you say so, but I want to get there fast," he responded.

"So I can see if I can beat a skateboard," Jamal said. "I get to practice running fast, and it can get me faster to my house, too."

"Okay," Rob replied. He rather doubted that Jamal would beat him, and hoped that his friend would not get in trouble for not going home first.

He pushed off with one foot several times and whizzed down the sidewalk, Jamal behind him. After about two more blocks, he could not hear his friend's running footsteps anymore. Another block later, he rounded the final corner and started down toward his house- a small maroon brick one story that he had often wished was larger. At least he knew that this time, the home was permanent.

Suddenly, he frowned. There was his mom's small blue car in the driveway, but parked by the curb right next to it, there was a _police car_. What was that about?

He zoomed to right by where his family front lawn started on the left side, about three feet from the police car, a bit hesitant to go in his house. There were footsteps behind him, and he turned around to see Jamal panting a little bit as he ran even faster toward him.

"Why are the police here?" Jamal asked, in between breaths.

Rob shrugged. "I don't know," he said, attempting to hide his concern.

He moved toward the house, a bit more slowly this time, with Jamal following him. Rob opened the door. He heard his mom, and turned toward her- and an older male police officer with graying hair- sitting on the couch near the entryway. The police officer instantly stood and started walking toward Rob and Jamal, as well as his mom.

"Rob, thank you for coming home quickly," his mom said.

Rob looked from his mom to the police officer. "What happened?" he asked. "Did the house get robbed," -he saw his mom flinch ever so slightly, but he continued anyway- "or something happen to Dad?"

Rob's mom shook her head. "No, neither of those," she said, looking a bit strained.

The police officer spoke up. Rob did not like his unfriendly eyes, nor his scrutinizing cold gaze that seemed to mean that he had found something that he had wanted. "We're just here to ask you a few questions," he said.

"Yes, sir," Rob responded, automatically adding the 'sir' by habit and repeated lessons of military etiquette from both many teachers in the military bases, and especially from his father.

He wondered what had happened. The thought of any brush with any sort of authority for doing something wrong had always been rather unsettling throughout his whole life. Even though now anything that he did would not cause his father to lose his job, he still never wanted to be on the wrong side of the law. He had not done anything for the police to come now, though.

Rob's mom turned to Jamal. "Look, you better go now so we can talk to Officer Gwerson," she said.

Jamal nodded, looking worried. "Right," he replied. He turned to Rob. "I hope everything goes okay here."

Rob also nodded. "Yeah," he responded.

His friend left and Rob regretfully closed the door behind him, then turned to his mom and Officer Gwerson.

"We can talk over there," his mom said, gesturing to the open living room.

Officer Gwerson nodded. "Right, ma'am," he responded briskly.

Rob followed his mom to the couch, while the officer sat near them in his father's tan chair.

"Right, I'll be frank," Officer Gwerson started, clasping his fingers together. "There have been several stores lately that have been robbed, and one of them actually caught one of the robbers squarely on camera. My granddaughter identified you- she goes to the same school, and is in the same grade, even- and I have to tell you, you definitely look exactly like that kid in the department store."

Rob's mom spoke before he could object. "But like I told you, about the timing- it couldn't have been Rob," she quickly said. "He would have been in school."

The officer turned toward him, and he tried not to flinch at the piercing gaze. "Were you at school at eleven am yesterday?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Rob responded, feeling quite unsettled as the officer eyes continued to bore down on him.

Officer Gwerson did not seem convinced, and he turned toward his mom.

"We're going to be checking into that," he said. "We can't rule out any evidence here."

He unclasped his hands. "Well, I'm certain that you have told me all that you can- or will, for now," he said. "I'll only leave you" –he looked at Rob with another suspicious gaze- "with a warning this time, but next time there will be a penalty."

"But I didn't-" Rob started.

The officer held up a hand. "I told you already, I saw that video," he interrupted. "Now, there may be someone that looks exactly like you in this city, but I doubt it," he said.

Rob's eyes widened for a split second, suddenly remembering what Alex had told him in the morning, but did not particularly feel like relating the story to the mistrustful officer. He already did not believe him about being in school when the robbery at one of the stores had occurred.

"I'll leave you two now to get back to my business," Officer Gwerson announced, standing up. "Good afternoon," he said curtly.

His mom also stood. "I'll get the door for you," she said, hurrying to the entryway.

Rob turned around to watch the officer leave. His mom closed the door, then turned to Rob. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that," she said, looking worried.

Rob frowned. "I didn't _do_ anything, though," he replied.

His mom nodded. "I know," she said, coming around the couch and sitting down next to him. "It's not even like you to do such a thing." She sighed. "We can only hope that the authorities will find the actual thief."

"Yeah," Rob replied, nodding. He looked toward the window, where the curtains and blinds were partially open and saw the still sunny weather. "Could I go back to Lenni's?" he asked.

To his disappointment, his mom shook her head. "Sorry, Rob, but I would rather that you stay home for the rest of the day," she replied. "I know that you didn't do anything, but I just want there to not be any possibility of you coming into trouble somehow, especially with that officer. Do you understand?"

Rob sighed. "Yes," he answered.

For a brief moment, he was glad that his mom had insisted on not saying 'ma'am' when addressing her. His father had disapproved, but his mom had stated that it too strange for her sons to do that, even when some other military kids did with their own moms. Even so, even she had been a bit strict about reminding him about following the many rules on the air force bases.

"I'll just be in my room," he said, glancing down briefly at the pen hanging on its cord around his neck that his friends had given him a few months ago.

It was his Ghostwriter pen, one for writing to the ghost that only he and his friends could see, and the words that he wrote. Rob could tell Ghostwriter about the whole incident with the police officer right now, and wait until tomorrow to tell his friends, though, especially since the officer had only given him a warning.

His mom nodded. "All right," she said. "I'll be starting supper soon. The prices for lettuce were ridiculous, though," she added, shaking her head. "And the tomatoes."

Rob also nodded, resisting the urge to grin widely at yet another mention of "overpriced items" from the grocery stores. Some of the prices still even baffled him sometimes, even for something small, such as a bag of potato chips. After living on air force bases for about twenty years, his mom was once again getting used to everything being much more expensive at civilian stores than at the commissaries on different bases.

Rob picked up his skateboard from where it was leaning against the couch and went into his room. He could not believe that Alex had actually seen someone that looked like him, assuming the officer- and his granddaughter; he wish he knew who she was- were telling the truth.

He sure also hoped that his dad would not be too mad, though he definitely would not be happy, at any rate. Hopefully the actual culprit would be caught soon, and Rob would find out why he looked so much like him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to [Starsoarer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starsoarer) for help with this chapter.


	2. Hunt

Rob sat down on the couch at Lenni's house next to Jamal. There was a knock on the door, and Lenni quickly went to the door and opened it.

He heard Gaby and her brother Alex, and Tina, and turned to see them coming with Lenni toward the living room area. They sat down on the couch, including Alex next to Rob on the corner. Lenni opened her notebook, which as Lenni had said during lunch, was full of possible clues. One was quite conspicuous, though . . .

"So what was this important clue that you guys know about that wasn't in the newspapers?" Gaby asked. Next to her, Tina also looked slightly impatient.

Jamal grinned. "You're not going to believe this," he said, glancing at Rob briefly. "So yesterday, Lenni and Alex had said that there was a common thing in all of the robberies mentioned where someone had seen the possible thief."

"Except the one that I saw," Alex put in.

"Right," Jamal agreed, nodding. "The witnesses said that they saw a middle school kid that could be a suspect in most of the robberies."

"And you would not believe what happened at Rob's house yesterday," Alex said.

Tina's face turned alarmed. "Someone broke into your house?" she asked.

Rob shook his head. "No, there was a police car there, and he had come about the robberies, but not at my place," he said. He quickly filled in the others about yesterday.

" _What?_ " Gaby said, looking surprised. "Did you see the video too? Maybe the police officer and his granddaughter had seen someone else."

"No, I didn't see it," Rob replied, shaking his head again. "The police officer was sure that the kid in the video looked like me, though."

Alex spoke up, looking excited. "Remember what I saw at the basketball game, though?" he asked.

"What was that?" Tina asked curiously. "I heard from Gaby that Hurston won."

The Latino boy grinned. "By a landslide," he said. "During the first half, though, I had thought that I saw Rob there, between two Dayton guys."

"But it wasn't me," Rob said, crossing his arms.

"I know," Alex replied, shrugging. "But with what that police officer had said, it _proves_ that I saw someone that looks like you. And that someone goes to Dayton," he ended triumphantly.

"But how are we going to catch someone from Dayton?" Tina asked.

Alex shrugged again. "Beats me. Maybe we could go there after school with Rob, and see if anyone still there would recognize him."

Lenni looked up from writing in the casebook. Rob was a little creeped out by what she had no doubtedly written about his look-a-like.

"We have to find out whoever he is, though, before he gets Rob into more trouble," she said.

"But the police would've found out from the teachers that he was there when the robbery that the police guy at Rob's house was talking about," Alex said, frowning. "He would know now that Rob didn't do it."

Jamal looked concerned. "But what if he steals something when Rob's _not_ at school, or a place when Rob's not around anybody?" he said. "That could cause a problem."

"Why is he only stealing stuff from our side of town?" Tina asked, frowning. "Wouldn't it be easier to do that where he lives?"

Alex shrugged. "Maybe he didn't want to be recognized," he suggested. "Or maybe he even _knows_ about Rob, and is stealing stuff from his side of town to get him in trouble."

"And how would he know Rob?" Jamal asked doubtfully.

"Rob wasn't even in Brooklyn last year," Gaby chimed in.

Alex shrugged again. "Eh, I don't know," he said. "But now we have an evil Dayton twin to catch," he added, grinning.

Rob didn't really feel like grinning back, and wondered if Alex would feel less excited if it were if the robber looked like him instead. As Rob had expected, his dad had not been happy last night after he had come home. At least he was not grounded or anything like that, though it was almost like he was on a probationary period. Why did the look-a-like person have to suddenly pop up, anyway?

"A doppelganger, really," Jamal corrected Alex. "Rob doesn't have a twin, right?"

"Yeah," Rob said, nodding.

Alex grinned again. "Hey, I like that word," he said. "It sounds more sci-fi."

Lenni closed the notebook. "So asking someone at Dayton about Rob sounds good," she said. "We don't have any other clues. The stores- and the library branch- are not even related, besides that they're close to each other, and we don't know what was stolen. The times that things were stolen don't even match. They're all so random."

"Rob and I could go to Dayton after school tomorrow," Jamal said, looking at Rob. "If that's okay with you."

Rob shrugged. At least he would not have to tell his parents where in the world he was going, since they would still both be working. He definitely doubted that at least he dad would approve. "I guess," he said.

"And the rest of us can go check out the places that the doppelganger stole stuff from, and see what was stolen," Alex added.

Gaby nodded, smiling. "All right," she said. She then frowned some. "I wish I could go to Dayton with Jamal and Rob, though."

Alex narrowed his eyes at his sister. "You're from elementary school, and you look it," he pointed out disapprovingly. "People there would _know_ that you don't belong."

"Yeah, I guess," Gaby agreed reluctantly.

Jamal looked at Alex. "What did the people with the guy that looked like Rob at the basketball game look like?" he asked.

Alex frowned, thinking. "I think that one had darker skin, like he was African-American or something," he said. "And the other one had black hair. Maybe he was Asian, like Japanese, or Vietnamese like Tina. They looked like that they were in seventh or eighth grade. And later, some taller guy that could be the first guy's brother or cousin or something came over, and they and the doppelganger followed him to somewhere to the other left side of the bleachers."

Jamal nodded. "Okay, at least that's something," he asked. "We don't know who those two guys are, and they might not even be at Dayton after school. So it's probably the best that we either find the guy who looks like Rob, if _he_ would still be there, or someone that knows him, and find out who he is."

"Right," Rob agreed. Hopefully they would not be in trouble for being at the wrong school. He did not need anything else that the police would get on his case about.

"He could be skipping school again, though," Gaby pointed out. "He's stolen stuff during school before."

Tina looked at Alex. "Was the doppelganger carrying a backpack, or anything with words?" she asked. "So Ghostwriter could find it?"

Alex shook his head. "No, the only words that I saw were on the two other guy's Dayton jackets, and anyone could be wearing those. And I wasn't even close enough to see any names in the bleachers, and I wasn't looking for them when I passed them in the hallway, either."

"Yeah," Jamal said. "There are probably a lot of those jackets at Dayton."

"We'd all better be careful," Lenni commented, looking a bit worried. "Especially Rob and Jamal. They'll be going to another middle school. And the rest of us have got to watch out for more robberies, since so many have happened within so few days."

"It'll be so worth it, though," Alex said, grinning. He put his right fist firmly on the palm of his left hand. "Tomorrow, we're going to get more evidence to catch a doppelganger."

* * *

Rob looked at the tall maroon brick building, surrounded by a lot of leafy trees. He walked closer to the glass doors of the front of the building, Jamal beside him. His skateboard was still at his house, as he had purposely left it behind so that he would look less conspicuous when he went to Dayton, and he hadn't wanted to leave it in his locker. He had definitely missed it while going to school this morning.

He looked up briefly, seeing the name of the building in large colored letters on the brick wall. Dayton Middle School.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this," Rob said quietly to Jamal as his friend neared the front doors.

Jamal looked at him. "Well, we've got to get more clues about who your Dayton doppelganger is somehow," he pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah," Rob said, trying to ignore the dread in his chest.

He sure hoped that they wouldn't be caught being in the wrong school. Maybe there was a bit of solace in that maybe some Dayton teacher would remember him being at the school if his "evil" doppelganger stole something again while he was there.

One of the front doors opened suddenly, and a dark-skinned girl walked out. "Sorry," she said briefly, barely even looking at them.

The girl walked passed them. "Hey," Jamal called out to her. The girl turned around, looking impatient.

"Do you . . . uh, happen to know him?" Jamal asked, pointing to Rob. Rob tried to look as if he wasn't worried about getting caught, especially with Jamal's kind of odd question.

"No, sorry," the girl quickly responded.

Rob and Jamal watched the girl as she strode off away from them into the large parking lot.

"That didn't help any," Rob commented.

Jamal shrugged. "Well, it was just the first try," he said. "We can ask more people things inside."

Rob nodded, and futilely attempting to squash his jumping nerves as his friend opened the door and they walked inside.

The inside of Dayton looked like any school, he supposed, with posters and things like student art hanging on the walls. There were several red rugs on the floor that definitely was not at Hurston, though, as well as two stripes, red and blue, on the walls, as well as the Dayton insignia.

About twenty people later, including from in the computer room, as Rob had suggested- once they had found it, with the help of a nice teacher hanging something on a bulletin board in a hallway- they were still as clueless as they were as they had gone into the school.

"Wow," Jamal said to Rob near the library. "I wonder if would be better to go to some Dayton event, where they are a lot of kids from there. Maybe we should look at that bulletin board where that teacher was again."

Rob shrugged. It had been quite strange with Jamal asking so many people about the doppelganger in the first place. There might not even be a Dayton event anytime soon, though.

"Hey, you!" someone called from behind them.

Rob turned around guiltily, certain that someone had finally figured out that he and Jamal did not belong in the school. There was a boy with blonde hair running toward them, carrying a large colored poster.

The boy looked at Rob. "You're the weird guy that was with Travis and Daiki, right?" he asked. "Branson, or something?"

Rob looked at Jamal, a little miffed at the boy's attitude, as well as perhaps the sheer luck in being told both the names of the two people that had been with the doppelganger at the basketball game, as well as possibly the doppelganger himself.

He tried to look inconspicuous, like he belonged at Dayton, while Jamal answered. "Weird guy?" he asked.

The blonde boy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever," he said. "You don't go to Dayton-" Rob saw Jamal shoot a quick confused look at him- "and you appeared out of nowhere in the gym. I _know_ I saw that. And then one of the windows just exploded" –he popped out the fingers on his free hand- "just like that. So, what are you doing, anyway?"

"Uh-" Rob started.

The blonde boy smirked. "What's the matter?" he asked. "Feeling down since your buddies aren't with you?" He laughed slightly. "They're not here, anyway. I saw them leave school earlier. I _could_ say that you're not supposed to be here, though."

Rob was strongly reminded of a notorious mean kid in his grade at Hurston, Calvin Ferguson, as the blonde kid continued. "And I don't know you," he said, looking at Jamal. "You probably don't go here either. Boy, you're going to get in a lot of trouble if I rat on you two, huh?"

Jamal kept his usual calm demeanor as he answered. "Well, we were just looking for Travis and Daiki, like you said," he responded. "And we don't know where else they would be. Could you help on that one?"

"Like I'd help you," the blonde boy sneered. "But I guess that the librarian in there would, especially since you two aren't supposed to be here?" he added, pointing unnecessarily to the library wall windows to the left of them. "She's always there for a while, but anyone that stays for after school projects in Dayton would know that."

Jamal started to back up, and Rob followed him. "We . . . were just leaving," he said.

He started to run down the hall, and Rob ran beside him, ignoring both the shouting of a male teacher that came out of a classroom as they passed it- what bad luck- plus the annoying blonde kid.

Rob quickly looked behind him to see the teacher scowling angrily not at him and Jamal, but the Dayton kid. Perhaps he had a bad reputation of some sort, even with doing after school projects, maybe even for a sort of detention, and the teacher they had run passed had thought that the blonde kid was in the wrong for something.

Several hallways later, they reached the front entrance. Jamal quickly shoved the front door open and he and Rob burst out the door, and did not stop until they reached the outer side of the parking lot.

"Whew," Rob said, panting slightly. "I'm glad that teacher didn't follow us." He looked back at Dayton, but no one was pursuing them, and both the parking lot and the front of the building was thankfully void of any random people.

Jamal nodded. "Yeah, no kidding," he agreed. He straightened. "But we did get some clues about that doppelganger, and maybe his friends at the basketball game, though."

"Travis and Daiki," Rob said.

"Alex had said that one of the guys with the doppelganger looked Asian, and Daiki is an Asian name, right?" Jamal said.

"Yeah, it's Japanese," Rob answered. He had known someone named Daiki in an air force base in the south somewhere, possibly Alabama or Louisiana. He then frowned. "What about the window exploding, though, that the Dayton kid was talking about?"

Jamal shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "He could have been exaggerating. Windows don't explode by themselves."

"Yeah, definitely not," Rob agreed. The blonde boy had probably been wrong about the doppelganger when saying that he had 'appeared out of nowhere', also.

Rob looked at Dayton again, and still saw the parking lot, empty besides a few cars. "I wonder if the others found what the doppelganger stole."

"I hope so," Jamal said.

Just then, there was the sound of glass breaking behind them. Rob whipped around to look back at the parking lot, but saw no people- but he did see the broken side front window of a small tan car about ten feet from them.

"Did you see anyone throw anything?" Jamal asked.

Rob shook his head. "No," he answered.

He scanned the parking lot, squinting in the bright sun, but still saw no one there. Behind him, small trees lined the sidewalk, but unlike the large ones in front of the school, they were definitely not wide enough to hide anyone. Some fleet person could have run away quickly after throwing something, though.

They ran to the car, careful to not step on the sharp glass bits, but found nothing of interest beside the smashed window.

"I guess that whatever was thrown landed in the car where we can't see it," Jamal concluded, looking through the front window.

"Hey!"

Rob turned his head at an angry voice, and saw a black-haired high school-aged female wearing a backpack shouting and running toward them. "Did you bust that window?" she asked angrily, pointing at the tan car.

"No," Jamal insisted, but the high schooler's angered face looked far from appeased.

"I bet you guys are the ones that have been stealing from Dayton, too!" she shouted. She stamped her foot. "You stop doing things at my sister's school, you hear?" she demanded. "And I'll remember your faces!"

She pelted off toward the school entrance while Rob watched in distress.

"Well, at least we don't go to Dayton," Jamal said. "We'd better get out of here before someone else finds us here, though."

"Definitely," Rob agreed.

They dashed away from the parking lot, toward the direction of Lenni's house.


	3. Storm

Rob walked with Jamal on the semi-busy sidewalk, about one block away from the Alex and Gaby's family store. He glanced ever so slightly to the right as they passed Tina's house, but he assumed that the Vietnamese girl would not be there.

A few blocks away from Dayton, Jamal had asked Ghostwriter to send a message to the others they were done with their part of the investigation. Lenni had responded that Gaby and Tina had finished and were with her at a library branch. She and Alex were almost finished, and had stated to meet her at her loft.

He glanced upward at the sky, where some ominous heavy grey clouds were forming, and raised an eyebrow. Apparently it might rain today at some point. He had seen some grey clouds gather in the sky while he had Jamal had gone away from Dayton.

Rob quickly followed Jamal up the steep steps to Lenni's loft in the swiftly gaining wind. He saw Jamal look up at the clouds at a low rumble from the sky.

"Maybe it'll be a big thunderstorm," Jamal suggested.

"Maybe." Rob supposed was not really too interested in the sky. More important was what the team had discovered about his doppelganger, and what he had stolen. What had the other found out from looking in the places where the robberies had occurred, anyway?

It had started to rain slightly when they reached the top of the steps. Lenni quickly answered the door when Jamal knocked.

"Hi. Come on in," the brunette girl invited them.

They went through the door to find the rest of the team sitting on the corner couch, obviously waiting for them. Rob and Jamal put their backpacks next to the others below the tiled kitchen counter.

"So did you find out anything at Dayton?" Gaby asked excitedly once they were situated on the couch. "Did you find the doppelganger?"

Jamal spoke. "Well, no, we didn't find the doppelganger," he started.

"You didn't?" Alex echoed, obviously disappointed.

Jamal raised an eyebrow. "Hey, though we didn't find him, we did find out the names of his friends are," he stated. "And something that might be close to the doppelganger's name." He grinned. "Also, we found out two other important things. First, things have also been stolen from Dayton, but we don't know what. And second, the doppelganger doesn't go to school there."

"He _doesn't?_ " Alex exclaimed, his face shocked. "But I _saw_ him those two people he was with. They definitely were wearing Dayton jackets."

"Well, he doesn't go to Hurston either," Lenni recounted, looking up from writing in her notebook.

"Then why was he at the basketball game?" Alex wondered, completely baffled with his hands in the air in a confused gesture.

Jamal shrugged. "He could be visiting from out of town," he pointed out. "Maybe he was with his friends and happens to like basketball, even though it's not a team from his school."

Alex scoffed. "Some friend he is, stealing stuff from town while he's here."

"Maybe they don't know?" Jamal put in.

Tina was frowning. "Why would he go and steal stuff when he could be spending time with his friends, or whoever he's visiting with?" she asked. "It just doesn't make too much sense."

"Unless he always steals things," Alex stated. "Maybe they just don't know he's a thief. And therefore, a criminal." He rolled his eyes. "Great, we could even have an escape artist thief from California, or even Russia, or something else way out there."

"Do you know what was stolen from Dayton?" Tina asked.

Jamal shook his head. "No, we heard about it, but not what."

"Did anything else happen?" Tina asked.

Rob nodded. "Well, I we don't know if its related to anyone stealing things from Dayton, but someone broke a window of one of the cars in the parking lot. While we were in it."

"You didn't see anyone?" Alex asked, while Lenni jotted something about the car window.

Rob shook his head. "No, I guess they ran off after doing that."

Alex frowned, but then shrugged. "Yeah, for whatever reason, the bad guys never want to get caught."

"I wonder who else has been stealing things from stores with the doppelganger," Tina stated. "He's not the _only_ thief."

Lenni shrugged, and set her chin on her left hand. "I don't know," she said. "The places that we went to didn't know who the people were, either, and couldn't give any more clues on who the other people were other than the facts that were already printed in the newspaper."

"But you did get what was stolen, right?" Jamal asked.

Lenni nodded. "Right."

"I want to know what the doppelganger's friend's names are," Gaby stated.

"And the doppelganger's," Tina put in. She frowned. "But you said that you only had something close to it."

Jamal nodded, while Lenni readied her pen. "Yeah, someone told us that his friends are Travis and Daiki, and he had also said that the doppelganger's name is 'Branson or something.'"

"Branson or something?" Gaby repeated, while Tina looked thoughtful.

"That could his first name, but it can also be a last name," she stated, tapping a finger on her chin.

Gaby's face looked excited. "Like Gary Branson in our grade," she recalled, then made a face. "He's really annoying."

Jamal didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. "Maybe, but it wouldn't really make much sense, if Travis and Daiki are first names."

Lenni was nodding. "They sure seem like they might be," she said.

They then came up with a variety of possible names for the doppelganger, first starting with more common ones like Braydon or Brendan, then some random, more outlandish sounding ones, such as Gaby's contribution of 'Bainbridge' from a book that she had read once.

Lenni found a names book from a closet across the room. Gaby and Tina, the latter of which was usually a bit more serious, were giggling over 'Baelfire' when Jamal intervened again.

"Okay, let's get serious, guys," he said.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, we haven't even told Jamal and Rob what was stolen yet."

Meanwhile, the rain had picked up outside to the point where it was hurtling in sheets against the windowpanes.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "It _wasn't_ supposed to rain today?" he asked, gazing in the direction of the hidden torrential downpour.

The room flashed with a bolt of lightning, soon followed by a ginormous clap of thunder. Gaby shrieked and looked at the window, her eyes wide.

Rob saw Alex roll his eyes. "Oh, come on," he complained. "It's just a storm."

"Easy for _you_ to say," Gaby stated, her voice tremoring a little.

"Right, so we need to get onto the things that were stolen in the store robberies," Lenni suddenly said.

Apparently she was trying to distract Gaby from the storm. It seemed to work as the Latino girl's face became slightly calmer as she turned toward her.

"The compass and rulers from the department store," Lenni began.

"They were wooden ones," Gaby interjected. "Don't forget that the type could be important."

Lenni nodded, her finger still on the list that she had created. "Right. There are three types of things from the toy store. First, there are around two small light-up bears- one with a hat that can glow if you push a button on the back of it; second, four black kitty kitty kittens, regular size-"

"A toy cat that makes a purring noise if you move it," Gaby explained.

"Third, two ten inch magna doodles-"

"Things you draw on," Gaby interjected.

Alex scoffed. "I _know_ what a magna doodle is," he said, scowling a bit.

Tina was looking a little confused. "Why would they want those toy cats?" she asked.

Alex merely rolled his eyes. "Who knows why they're stealing from a toy store from the first place. Since they're black, maybe they want to use them to scare store people by pretending that they're spiders before they steal something else."

"I think that would be ruined by the noise they make," Rob pointed out. "Gaby said they make a purring sound when you move them, right?"

The Latino boy shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

Lenni continued listing the items stolen. "Next is the dollar store- three bungee cords, red and blue striped, half an inch thick."

"I was kind of wondering who'd want bungee cords from a dollar store," Alex commented. "I mean, they can't really be the good kind if you get them from there."

"You'd be surprised what type of good things you can for low prices from stores like that," Jamal pointed. "Sometimes even for lower prices than other stores, even a place like Wal-Mart, and it's the same exact thing."

Lenni nodded. "Some things aren't so good, but other things are. My dad once got a phone cord that would have cost a lot more at another store."

The Latino boy shrugged. "Well, it's not like they even bought them, anyway."

"That's true," Jamal responded, nodding.

Gaby was looking a bit confused. "Why would they want a bungee cord?"

Next to her, Tina was looking thoughtful. "You can use them to hold things shut," she said. "Like the trunk of a car that has a lot of stuff in it, and it can't close all of the way, or even in a fridge door, to get the things on the shelf to stay on."

Alex suddenly grinned. "Hey, Papa did that once, before we got another fridge. Remember that, Gaby?"

His sister was not looking amused as she scowled. "Yeah, and you opened the fridge, and the chocolate syrup fell down straight onto the box that had a new shipment of some things for the store."

"Yeah, yeah, but I'm not the one that put the box there."

"But you _were_ they one that had left the lid of the chocolate syrup open in the first place."

Jamal spoke up before the siblings could argue any more. "Okay, let's get back to the case, guys."

Beside Alex, Lenni nodded. The brown-haired girl continued listing items from the list, including several metal replications of stone arcs and a large bag of colored glass marbles.

Meanwhile, outside the storm still rage. Gaby was suggesting that a lot of the items could be separated into two groups- cleaning supplies and toys- when there was an extra loud thunderclap, and the lights went out.

Gaby shrieked as they room faded into dimness. A faint light came from behind the curtains.

"So it's not the whole area, at least," Lenni commented as she felt in the darkness to get some flashlights out of the cupboards.

A bit later, a cupboard slammed Rob's far left, and he looked over there to see Lenni's face illuminated by the yellow beam of a green plastic flashlight. In her right arm, she held two more, as well as a small plastic bag on her arm.

"Dad always keeps a few extras around for emergencies," she explained as she made her way back to the couch.

She handed one flashlight to Jamal, and, maybe even for comfort, Gaby a light pink one. Rob noticed that the Latino girl _did_ look less scared as she clicked on the flashlight and beamed the small light over the ceiling.

Gaby then put her free hand over the light, and began to move her fingers into various positions. "It's like one of those light shows," she said, smiling a little as she formed a hand to make a barking dog.

Alex looked at her reprovingly. "Hey, you better not waste the batteries," he chided. "We don't know how long the lights are going to be off."

Lenni smiled in the beam of her own flashlight. "It's fine," she said, pointing to the bag that she had brought to the low table near the couch. "We have a lot of extra batteries, too."

The Latino boy looked like he was about to make a retort, then closed his mouth as he saw Gaby again, who was now making bunny shapes appear on the ceiling.

He then shrugged. "I hope the lights aren't out in the bodega-"

He fell silent as there was a distant crash from below them, followed by several screams.

"Someone's happened in the bodega!" Gaby shrieked, the beam of her flashlight waving wildly across the room. "And Papa's in there."

Her brother looked worried, but seemed to be trying to stay calm. "Maybe a customer just tripped over something," he suggested. "And Papa's helping to get them back up."

"But the door is glass, and it's daytime," Gaby pointed out, not looking appeased, but still frightened. "There would be light coming through the window."

Lenni spoke up. "Someone still could have just tripped, anyway," she suggested.

Gaby set her face in a stubborn look. "I want to go there and look," she said, getting up to go to the door.

Alex followed and pulled on her sleeve. "Hey, you can't just go out there right now," he stated. "It's pouring out, and you can't go out when's there's lightning-"

Another crash sounded from below, even louder than the first, combined with another thunderous boom from outside. Gaby shrieked again.

Even Alex now was looking a bit concerned, but no longer had to hold his sister back as she stared, wide-eyed, at the window. The curtain was actually blowing- bit with what wind?- and Lenni ran to the fluttering material. She hastily pulled aside the curtain, then frowned. Gaby and Alex ran toward her.

"What is it?" Alex asked. Beside him, Gaby was still looking quite scared.

"I left the window open," Lenni exclaimed.

She pulled up the blinds, and started to try to wrench the bottom half of the window closed. Alex went to help her, and together, they managed to pull it shut easily.

Lenni backed up, sighing in relief. "Since Dad told me to leave the window open earlier to let the glue on the seal dry," she explained. "He left just about a half house before you guys came. It would have dried by way before now, and I completely forgot to close it."

Rob came over to the area, looking in confusion at the floor as the rain spattered against the windows with more force. "Why isn't the floor wet at all?"

Alex suddenly made a confused face. "Yeah, isn't it?" he asked.

"I don't know, Lenni said, feeling the light blue and white curtain before pulling them in front of the window again. "The curtains aren't wet either."

"Now that's weird," Jamal commented. "Window screens aren't that good."

Lenni nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know."

Rob was suddenly reminded, for whatever reason, of the mean boy at Dayton. He had told them that the doppelganger had 'appeared out of nowhere', and then later, another window had exploded . . . But why was he remembering that now?

There was a sudden loud thump on glass nearby. Rob looked at the window.

"That wouldn't be a tree branch, would it?" Alex asked.

Lenni shook her head. "There' aren't any tall enough trees nearby for that to happen," she said.

"Maybe something blow in from the street, like plastic cup from a restaurant?" Jamal suggested. "It is really windy out there."

There was another loud thump on the window pane. Alex frowned as he pulled the curtain aside and pulled up the blinds. "If someone's throwing stuff at the window-"

"In _this_ storm?" Jamal asked.

Alex shrugged, and then froze as he stared at the window. Gaby shrieked again, and then also Tina, and backed up a bit. Rob moved over to see what they were looking at.

Seemingly stuck to the window, there were two large large furry black shapes that seemed to be huge spiders. They did not move, but stayed there, as if glued, wanting to enter in the unlit room they were standing in . . .

Alex found his voice. "What are _those?_ " he demanded, now also looked somewhat frightened.

"Not spiders," Tina said, her voice also quivering a bit. "They don't have enough legs."

Rob squinted as a beam of light hit him nearly in the face, as Gaby shakily brought her flashlight to see the shapes on the window. Tina was correct. The shapes- actually not wet; but how could that be?- only had four legs. They also each had a head with lumps on top that looked strangely like ears . . . like cats.

"Those are the two of the cats that the robbers stole from the toy store," Lenni said.

Alex's face turned slightly confused. "What?" He drew closer to the shapes, and shakily lifted up one finger, and poked the window where one of the cat's bellies was. Neither one moved.

Rob frowned, still trying to get over his own shock of seeing the furry shapes. How could two black kitty kitty kittens be stuck in a high window in a middle of a storm?

Alex poked the window again, and Rob heard Gaby gasped as the cats seemed to jump from the window, and disappear into the raging storm.

"Where did they go?" Tina asked, pressing her face against the window.

Rob moved a bit closer. Through the haze of pouring rain and an occasional burst of lightning, he saw only buildings and dark clouds that seemed to stretch on for miles. There was nothing that looked like weird black cat toys flying around anywhere.

Jamal looked at Alex. "Well, I guess that someone _is_ using them to scare people after all," he commented.

Rather than looking glad, the Latino boy frowned instead. "How did someone get them up this high in the first place?" he asked.

"Maybe they did it with strings?" Lenni suggested.

Gaby blanched. "You mean that the robbers might be on the roof?" she asked, her voice slightly shrill.

Alex shrugged, still not looking totally composed himself. "Maybe they left?"

There was suddenly a knock on the door. Gaby screamed again as she swerved around, and Alex ran toward the door, seemingly ready to fight whoever wanted in.

Jamal ran toward him. "Hey, we don't know who it is," he pointed out.

Another series of knocks came again, then a voice. "Is everything all right in there?" asked a familiar Spanish-accented voice.

Gaby looked relieved as she ran to the door and flung it open. A tall person stood there, wearing a thick blue poncho

"Papa!" Gaby exclaimed.

Her father came inside, pulling off a dripping wet hood the friendly store manager from downstairs. Heedless over the soggy overcoat, Gaby hugged her father tight. Lenni went and quickly shut the door before more rain could come in.

Her father put a strong arm around his daughter for a small bit before releasing her. Gaby stopped hugging her father, though Rob noticed that she still looked scared.

Mr. Fernandez smiled at his daughter. "You better not hug me too much with this poncho on, or you will also become wet, no?" he asked.

Gaby shook her head. "I don't care," she said, and hugged her father again.

"So what are you doing up here, Papa?" Alex asked. He also looked relieved with the arrival of his father.

The store owner shrugged. "Well, the power went out in the store, and one of a customer's little girl knocked over some supplies on the counter," he started. "So after I helped them pick them up- and then again, when the customer's _other_ little girl knocked over more supplies; very accident prone, maybe- I hear screaming from above.

"So someone _did_ knock over something," Alex said, looking at Gaby. She merely shrugged as her father nodded and continued his tale.

"So I thought, maybe, the lights are out there too, and someone is having trouble, especially after there is more screaming."

Gaby then spoke to her father again, her eyes slightly wide. "Papa, something landed on the window, and there were these giant black things there, like big huge spiders."

Alex spoke up. "They were actually some toy cats that someone stole from the toy store nearby," he said. "You know, from the robberies from the stores lately. Somehow they got two of them on the window."

"Before they pulled them away," Gaby added.

Mr. Fernandez only gently smiled. "Well, I'm sure it was really nothing, like something blowing from the wind."

"But I _saw_ them," Gaby protested.

Beside her, Alex was nodding. "Yeah, black ones."

Mr. Fernandez merely raised an eyebrow. "It was probably nothing to worry about," he said again. "A lot of things can suddenly be elsewhere in a storm like this, though I don't think that cats would jump onto a second story window."

Gaby huffed, but did not comment. Rob looked Jamal, who merely shrugged. Apparently Alex and Gaby's father did not seem to believe his two children, since he had not seen what had occurred. Then again, it was pretty weird, even considering that the cats were on the list of things that the robbers had stolen.

The lights above them suddenly came on. Rob blinked in the sudden light, and saw Lenni and Jamal turn off their flashlights. He suddenly noticed that the pounding rain outside had begun to let up.

Mr. Fernandez looked around at the orderly kitchen and living room from where he stood, then patted Gaby's shoulder. "Well, it looks like everything is fine up here," he said. "I should get back to my store." He then looked at his children. "I will expect you two to come back, also, when the rain stops," he added. "I will need some help with the inventory for the things that the two little girls knocked over earlier."

Gaby made a small face. Alex also looked a bit put out, but nodded to his father. "Okay," he agreed.

His father then nodded proudly at his son. "Thank you, Alejandro, and also thank you, Gabriela," he said, also turning to Gaby. "You two are very good helpers in the store."

Alex shrugged while Mr. Fernandez put on his hood again. After a small farewell, he went back into the slackening rain.

Alex turned around to the team. "Well, I get Gaby and I can't do anything else with the case today," he said. "Last time we did an inventory, it took _forever_." He then looked at his sister. "You can turn off your flashlight now, you know," he stated. "You don't need it anymore since the power's back on."

Gaby shrugged and clicked off the pink flashlight.

Tina looked gently at her friend. "Well, maybe we can do something tomorrow," she suggested. "I have to be home soon, anyway."

Jamal nodded. "Yeah, me too," he said. "Dad wanted me to help with cleaning some stuff in the basement after supper."

"So, tomorrow, then, maybe about an hour after school?" Lenni asked.

Rob and the rest of the team gave consent. He was glad that he would have to time go to the computer lab to type some again.

Lenni nodded. "All right, we've got another time to meet, then," she said.

"And more time to crack the case," Alex added. He then shrugged. "Hopefully we don't have flying magnadoodles at some point."

Jamal laughed as he put flashlight he was holding on the small, colored-tiled kitchen counter. "Now _that_ would be like aliens," he said.

Tina frowned. "Pretty creepy," she commented.

"What about the silly string?" Alex added. "It would be like a giant spider web, except in mid-air."

Gaby made a sour face. "Oh, yuck!" she exclaimed. "Don't even say that."

Alex only laughed while his sister scowled at him. Before long, the rain let up completely, and Rob followed Alex and most of the others, out the door, with Lenni waving to them from the doorway before closing it.

He looked at the one of the windows of the brown-haired girl's loft before taking off on his skateboard.

Cats on windows in a middle of a storm? Whoever the robbers were, including his doppelganger, they sure liked to do some weird things.


End file.
